text:
Brooklyn resident wins Miss America crown
LAS VEGAS - The Associated Press
Miss New York Mallory Hytes Hagan is crowned the new Miss America during the 2013 Miss America Pageant at PH Live at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on January 12, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada. David Becker/AFP
A 23-year-old contestant from Brooklyn, New York, won the title of Miss America in Las Vegas on Saturday night.Mallory Hagan won the beauty pageant after tap dancing to James Brown's "Get Up Off of That Thing" and answering a question about whether armed guards belong in grade schools by saying we should not fight violence with violence.
Hagan defeated Miss South Carolina Ali Rogers, who took second, and Miss Oklahoma Alicia Clifton, who finished third.
Hagan wins a $50,000 college scholarship and gets the crown for one year. Her platform was stopping child sexual abuse.
She is expected to spend her title reign on a nationwide speaking tour and raising money for the Children's Miracle Network, the organization's official charity.
Hagan defeated several other notable competitors who grabbed headlines this year because of their backstories.
Miss District of Columbia plans to undergo a preventive double mastectomy to reduce her risk of breast cancer, which killed her mother and grandmother.
Miss Montana was the pageant's first autistic contestant.
Miss Iowa has Tourette's syndrome.
And Miss Maine lost more than 50 pounds (22.68 kilograms) before winning her state crown.
The 92nd Miss America annual show held this year at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip is the culmination of a week of preliminary competitions and months of preparations for the titleholders from all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The pageant, which started as little more than an Atlantic City bathing suit revue, broke viewership records in its heyday and bills itself as one of the world's largest scholarships programs for women.
But like other pageants, the show has struggled to stay relevant as national attitudes regarding women's rights and civil rights have changed.
More recently, the rise of reality television has provided a superabundance of options for Americans interested in seeing attractive young people in competitive pursuits.


text:
Penney, Macy's court fight comes down to plastic pitchers
The legal battle between Macy's and J.C. Penney over who gets to sell what Martha Stewart products took a comedic turn on Tuesday when lawyers asked a judge to weigh two pitchers in his hands, one from each of the rival retailers.
At stake is the question of whether Penney violated the judge's order not to sell certain Stewart products.
Macy's Inc lawyer Michael Platt placed the two tastefully designed plastic pitchers on the bench in front of Justice Jeffrey Oing in New York state Supreme Court in Manhattan.
One pitcher was from the Macy's Martha Stewart Collection, Platt said, the other from J.C. Penney Co Inc's label, Martha Stewart Celebrations. (The Macy's pitcher is $30 online, the Penney model $12).
"Pick them up," the Macy's lawyer urged the judge. "They are both made of plastic. They both weigh about the same."
The judge obliged, lifting one in each hand.
Macy's wanted the judge to order J.C. Penney to pull the pitcher from its shelves. It claims Penney violated a temporary order barring it from selling Martha Stewart-branded products in tableware, bedding, bath and other home product categories.
Oing issued the injunction last summer after Macy's sued J.C. Penney and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc over their plans to launch Martha Stewart boutiques in stores.
The deal was part of former Penney Chief Executive Ron Johnson's failed effort to reinvent the retailer. Johnson was ousted on Monday after sales declined 25 percent at J.C. Penney last year.
Macy's claims the domestic diva's J.C. Penney deal breaches its contract to exclusively sell certain categories of Martha Stewart products.
A non-jury trial in the battle over her home goods resumed this week after a month-long hiatus.
In addition to the pitchers, Macy's says it discovered over the weekend that Penney is selling a $10 set of champagne flutes and other Stewart-branded stemware that it allegedly should not.
Macy's said it found the disputed items on its rival's website and bought the pitcher at a J.C. Penney store in a New Jersey mall.
Mark Epstein, a lawyer for Penney, said he was looking into the matter.
The judge said he would not immediately rule on whether the items were being sold in violation of his preliminary injunction.
Ultimately, Oing said, if he decides Penney was not allowed to sell the items, Penney could be ordered to pay monetary damages to Macy's.
"Let's move on," the judge said Tuesday, after weighing the pitchers - and Penney's fate - in his hands for a second time.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld. Editing by Andre Grenon)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Clyfford Still
United StatesArt Brokerage: Clyfford Still American Artist: b. 1904-1980. Clyfford Still was born November 30, 1904, in Grandin, North Dakota. He attended Spokane University in Washington for a year in 1926 and again from 1931 to 1933. After graduation, he taught at Washington State College in Pullman until 1941. Still spent the summers of 1934 and 1935 at the Trask Foundation (now Yaddo) in Saratoga Springs, New York. From 1941 to 1943, he worked in defense factories in California. In 1943, his first solo show took place at the San Francisco Museum of Art, and he met Mark Rothko in Berkeley at this time. The same year, Still moved to Richmond, where he taught at the Richmond Professional Institute. When Still was in New York in 1945, Rothko introduced him to Peggy Guggenheim, who gave him a solo exhibition at her Art of This Century gallery in early 1946. Later that year, the artist returned to San Francisco, where he taught for the next four years at the California School of Fine Arts. Solo exhibitions of his work were held at the Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, in 1947, 1950, and 1951 and at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, in 1947. In New York in 1948, Still worked with Rothko and others on developing the concept of the school that became known as the Subjects of the Artist. He resettled in San Francisco for two years before returning again to New York. A Still retrospective took place at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, in 1959. In 1961, he settled on his farm near Westminster, Maryland. Solo exhibitions of Still's paintings were presented by the Institute of Contemporary Art of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1963 and at the Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York, in 1969-70. He received the Award of Merit for Painting in 1972 from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, of which he became a member in 1978, and the Skowhegan Medal for Painting in 1975. Also in 1975, a permanent installation of a group of his works opened at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, gave him an exhibition in 1980. Still died June 23 of that same year in Baltimore.
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text:
Now any at-sea user, from day sailors to coastal cruisers and fishermen, can acquire and put to use the weather and ocean insights offered by GRIB data. The GRIB Explorer GRIB viewing software allows you to view GRIB data like 500mb and sea surface heights the way they are meant to be viewed, in 3D.
The updated version of the renowned GRIB reader includes new a plot options panel that allows users to more closely control how data is displayed. Users can set contour line intervals, number of contours displayed, and ranges as they relate to the data. All of these adjustments can be made on the fly while viewing the data, helping to pinpoint the information that is most important. GRIB Explorer 8 also sports an updated graphical menu bar and more background map images to choose from for displaying data over.
Compatible with Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10
Why GRIB Data?
GRIB data is special because of its size, information content, and versatility of use. Generated by weather and ocean models operating on national, regional and sometimes global scales, GRIB files associate an environmental variable with a geographic position. Because the resulting file consists of just a collection of these points they are extremely small and thus readily transferred over bandwidth limited satcoms, cell phones and other wireless devices. And the information content of GRIB data is awe-inspiring. Almost every conceivable weather and ocean data variable is available in GRIB format. Surface pressure, wind, waves, swell, cloud cover, precipitation, sea temperature, currents, salinity, even sub-surface temperatures and mixed layer depths are available in GRIB format. In many cases, spatial resolutions reach as low as to 0.1 degree lat/lon and are available on a global basis. Lastly, the weather variables are forecasted out to 120 hours and longer so it is possible to use the data to view weather anticipated several days in advance.
Is it hard to use?
OCENS GRIB Explorer changes all that. With a simple, easy-to-use graphical user interface, GRIB Explorer places the power of GRIB data at your fingertips. Double-click on the GRIB file you have downloaded and it will instantly display your data in a very dynamic graphical format. The display can easily be changed to show contours lines, color filled contours, arrows or wind barbs, and even data point values. All of this allows relevant weather or ocean features to become much more evident. GRIB Explorer is so easy to use and powerful that customers opt to use in in lieu of viewing GRIB data with their existing GRIB viewing capable navigation software.
How do I access GRIB data?
Of course, being able to use GRIB Explorer to explore the power of GRIB data is pointless without a means of easily obtaining your GRIB data while at-sea. Fortunately, OCENS offers today's definitive weather delivery engine, WeatherNet. With over 20,000 GRIB files, WeatherNet carries the world's largest collection of GRIB weather and ocean data. Not only is the collection robust, but the WeatherNet delivery service drops those files onto your computer just seconds after your request through any satcomm, cell phone or wireless device. Once delivered, the synergy between OCENS WeatherNet and OCENS GRIB Explorer is clearly evident. Upon closing WeatherNet's File Transfer screen, GRIB Explorer launches immediately and begins to process and display your downloaded GRIB data. If you've downloaded a point forecast for a given GRIB variable, that file is displayed by itself. But if you've downloaded a series of forecasts, say from the analysis of present conditions out to 120 hours, GRIB Explorer kicks into animation mode automatically to put the weather in motion like you've never seen before.
OCENS GRIB Explorer places you at the cutting edge of weather information processing. Buy it now and put to use the best available weather and ocean data for the critical decisions affecting your navigation and trip planning.
Download brochure
Compatible with Windows XP-10


text:
Scott D. Parker
I received a strange thing in the mail the other day: an
invitation to the Book-of-the-Month (BOMC) club. The club isn't odd. Far from
it. I remember back in the day avidly scanning the catalogs of books I could
get for a dollar each! It was a bibliophile's dream. Not only would you get the
latest hardbacks (for a dollar; did I mention that?), but you could double-up
you points and get something in a slipcase. Tis how I got my hardback version
of The Hobbit. I would pore over that catalog, getting my top 15, then paring
it down to my top 10, and, finally, writing the numbers of my top 5 there on
the card. You'd mail a thin piece of paper and, later, you'd get a big box in
the mail. It was awesome.
What surprised me is that the BOMC is still around and
making their pitch via a mailer. I forget that, for a large majority of the
folks out there, paper books are still the go-to reading medium. As someone who
has (mostly) made the paradigm shift to ebooks, where all the books hover between
$4.00 and $14.00, it just surprised me that BOMC is still around and making
their pitch via paper. That is, I expected them to be online, perhaps, and
still have their service available to readers, just that those readers would
have to go online to order paper books. I know it's not an earth-shattering
idea, but it still struck me as funny.
I wonder if there's an ebook version of BOMC? A quick check
of their website revealed a "no" on ebooks. I wonder how that'd work? Would
they send you a epub (or whatever) file every month that would be readable in
an app they created? If you want the title, you pay for it and the code gets
removed? If you didn't, the file would "close" after 7 days? Is that even
feasible? I dunno, but it's an interesting idea.
Anyone still a member of the BOMC?


text:
IRC, unknown channel, unknown date.
<neal> tschwinge: If I do a make clean n the root directory, follow that with a configure, configure fails with: configure: error: C compiler cannot create executables
<neal> this is in config.log: /home/neal/src/hurd-l4/build/lib/gcc/i686-pc-viengoos-gnu/4.2.2/../../../../i686-pc-viengoos-gnu/bin/ld: cannot find -lc
<neal> rt
<tschwinge> neal: Should make clean also remove srcdir/gcc/gcc and binutils, as you do it with newlib?
<neal> I'd prefer it not to
<neal> as I use make clean to prep the tree for new configure changes
<neal> and build gcc takes a long time
<neal> (as does newlib, but newlib in this case needs to be rebuilt)


text:
Product Description
This printed baseball has a detailed painting of Angel Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Angels, printed on it. One panel of the baseball has inside field view of the stadium, including billboards and stadium seats painted in full detail. Other panel of baseball has view of outside stadium where the name Angel Stadium is located, exactly as it is shown on the real building.
Limited Edition.
Includes a protective, clear lucite display box.


text:
Dear Editor: The following is an open letter to Assemblywoman Jimenez
Dear Honorable Assemblywoman Jimenez:
I am contacting your office directly, in wake of the horrific accident that occurred on Boulevard East in West New York, in which an innocent 8 month old infant girl was killed. There are no words that are able to express the grief and sorrow this family is experiencing because of this tragic incident. As you are well aware from the current news articles in the Jersey Journal, the jitney van driver has been charged with death by auto and other numerous charges in this incident. In my 34 years on the West New York Police Department, I have borne witness to the damage and threat to public safety that these commuter vans have posed throughout the years. Furthermore, the lack of any type of oversight on this form of transportation is a major public safety issue that needs immediate attention. During the past decade, this issue has been reported on and discussed, but no comprehensive actions have ever been taken to remedy this issue.
As Assemblywoman for the 32nd district, I am asking for your office to immediately research this issue and bring legislation and/or state oversight to these commuter vans. It should not have to take the death of an innocent 8 month old girl for this matter to be resolved before more innocent victims are affected. We are all well aware of the oversight and monitoring that NJ transit uses to ensure the safety of its passengers and the internal controls utilized with their employees. Public safety, in the form of commuter transportation, must be put at the forefront in our agenda to protect and serve the public. Many constituents can testify to the deplorable conditions that many of these commuter vans are in. In addition, there are various commuter van drivers that shouldn't be legally allowed to operate these vehicles, due to suspended driving privileges and other infractions. Hudson County is one of the biggest transit hubs on the eastern seaboard. Many of our constituents utilize public transportation daily for numerous reasons. As always, it's imperative that we be proactive, and not reactive, in creating a safe and reliable transit system in the 32nd District.
In closing, I implore that this matter be addressed immediately. I have forwarded a copy of this this letter to Senator Nick Sacco and West New York Mayor Felix Roque. Together, I feel that we can institute immediate changes to this public safety threat. I would request that we do this out of respect for the family and in memory of their daughter. Furthermore, I would request any introduced legislation to bear the name of this child to respect the memory of her passing and demonstrate to her family that we will not allow one more innocent victim to be affected by this public safety threat.
Thank you for taking time to consider my request. If there are any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at (201) 282-1729
Carlos Betancourt


text:
The Moms group that got Target, Chili's and Chipotle to take a stance against guns called on Kroger to do the same Monday.
The organization, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, wants the grocery chain to ban customers from openly carrying guns in its stores.
The demand comes after a woman shot and killed her husband and then herself in Georgia at a Kroger parking lot in June, and other gun-related incidents at Kroger stores, the group said in a news release.
In dozens of states, including Georgia, openly carrying a gun is legal.
Kroger (KR) is one of the largest supermarket chains in the country, operating 2,642 super markets and nearly 1,000 convenience stores.
Related: Target tells customers to leave guns at home
The gun control advocacy group was founded in response to the Sandy Hook school shooting and has partnered with billionaires Michael Bloomberg and Warren Buffett.
It has had success with its past campaigns. In May, Chipotle (CMG), Sonic (SONC) and Chili's (EAT) restaurants folded under intense public pressure and asked customers to leave their guns at home. Target (TGT) followed suit in July.
Kroger's has a policy posted on its website on customers carrying firearms in its stores. While it doesn't specifically ask customers to stop carrying guns into stores, it asks that they follow state and local laws and be respectful of others while shopping.


text:
Doing special exercises is the first way to treat frozen shoulder. You may see a physical therapist who can help you learn to do them. If these exercises don't help, you may need more medical treatment.
Doing stretches is often the best way to treat frozen shoulder. Stretching each day can help lessen the pain and restore shoulder flexibility. But it often takes a lot of time before you notice results. Try to be patient.
To warm up, do the "pendulum." While standing, let the hand on your frozen side dangle freely as you hold the back of a chair or a tabletop with your other hand. Slowly make circles and side-to-side motions with the frozen arm.
Your healthcare provider may refer you to physical therapy. This hands-on care helps you learn how to do stretching exercises at home. A physical therapist may also work on restoring your shoulder flexibility. To do this, they may gently stretch and move your frozen shoulder.
Anti-inflammatory medicines or steroid injections can help relieve pain. This may help you do your stretches. Your healthcare provider can tell you more.
Mild and moist heat can help loosen your shoulder. Try taking a warm shower or bath just before you stretch.
A cold or ice pack can limit pain and swelling. Try icing your shoulder for a few minutes after you do your stretches.


text: Conf Cephalal et Neurol Vol. 30, N. 2/2020 Main Article Content Editorial Office Editorial Office Confinia Cephalalgica et Neurologica Keywords . Abstract Scarica il pdf per consultare il fascicolo 2/2020 Downloads Download data is not yet available. Abstract 212 | PDF Downloads 55 Article Sidebar PDF Published Nov 2, 2020 Article Details How to Cite 1.Office E. Conf Cephalal et Neurol Vol. 30, N. 2/2020. Confinia Cephalal et Neurol [Internet]. 2020 Nov. 2 [cited 2024 Feb. 22];30(2):77-131. Available from: https://mattioli1885journals.com/index.php/confinia/article/view/10889 More Citation Formats ACM ACS APA ABNT Chicago Harvard IEEE MLA Turabian Vancouver Download Citation Endnote/Zotero/Mendeley (RIS) BibTeX Issue Vol. 30 No. 2 (2020) Section Articles In consideration of the publication of my manuscript or other written work, I hereby transfer to MATTIOLI 1885 SPA the sole and exclusive worldwide rights,to secure copyright;to produce preprints or reprints for sale or free distribution;to republish the article in a collection of articles or any other format related to the Journal.Furthermore, I affirm that this article (text, illustrations, and/or tables) is original, unpublished, not under consideration by another journal, and not subject to copyright or any other of the rights that are hereby assigned to MATTIOLI 1885.


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CH391L/S12/Pattern Formation
Synthetic Pattern Formation
Organisms have evolved to receive signals, transduce the message, and elicit an appropriate response. Patterns are formed by cells deferentially responding to signals, whether it be from signals generated from other cells or external features such as light. In recent years, biologists are beginning to create synthetic pattern formation algorithms which allow for manipulation of biology on a more complex level. This page will specifically focus on synthetic pattern formation in E.coli.
Synthetic Pattern Formation Driven by Light
The synthetic biology community has been using light as a tool for pattern formation in microbes since 2002. [1] Light has been utilized for pattern formation in E. coli for the first ever organismal photograph[2]. Since then that system was modified to be an "edge detector" of light[3]. The focus of this section will be on the paper Multichromatic Control of Gene Expression in Escherichia coli[4].
Having multiple light induction systems is great for having high resolution spatio-temporal control of gene expression.This paper essentially describes a two wavelength (RED and GREEN) gene expression system. Essentially, gene expression can be turned on via RED light or GREEN light in a specific and orthogonal manner. The RED system was borrowed from the initial photograph forming E.coli. Briefly, the RED system uses an engineered phytochrome, cph8 ,coupled to a EnvZ/OmpR pathway to activate gene expression. In the gene circuit cph8 is produced in the phosphorylated "ON" state, which upon induction of RED light switches to the unphosphorylated "OFF" state. In order for the RED light to produce LacZ, the cph8 regulates an inhibitor (C1) that binds to the LacZ reporter. In the dark cph8 is "ON" which will make C1 and keep the LacZ "OFF." But when RED light is present the cph8 no longer expresses the C1, thus allowing LacZ production. The cph8 system can be considered a NOT gate, or genetic inverter.
The RED system was tested by the Miller assay (a quantitative LacZ expression assay). In Dark conditions 0.58MU were produced as compared to RED conditions 1.41MU. This corresponds to an induction of 2.4 fold, which is similar to the green system. The RED system is dependent on the PCB chromophore, which is produced from heme by two genes on a plasmid. For proper induction under the corresponding light-wavelengths, transfer functions of induction were tested. This essentially tests the induction of LacZ expression across the spectrum of light. As it turns out, the RED system is turned on partially at the Green induction wavelength (532nM).
The GREEN system is a two component system involving a membrane associated histidine kinase CcaS and response regulator CcaR. Green light increases the rate of CcaS autophosphorylation, phosphotransfer to CcaR, and transcription by promoter cpcG2 upon CcaR binding. This is different than the RED system, which turns expression OFF in Red light, because it directly turns ON gene expression under green light conditions. The Green light System was tested through Miller Assays. In Green light the cells produced 50MUs of LacZ while in Dark Conditions made 25MU. (2-Fold Induction). Cells grown in Red light slightly decreased LacZ production. Experiments were also done in cells that lacked the PCB forming vector, which resulted in the same "No Response" LacZ production in each test case (Green, Red or Dark) and at roughly 10MU production of LacZ.
Both of these systems were use in parallel to demonstrate compatibility and orthogonality. The engineered cells were shown a mask of a chili pepper, which has a GREEN stem and RED core. The system responded correctly to each of the input signals after some tinkering with expression levels and the intensity of light. This tinkering was necessary because the RED system was turned on slightly at the GREEN wavelength (532nM). This effect was limited by using less intense light (which decreased sensitivity to the wrong wavelength) and by decreasing the strength of the ribosome binding site.
Synthetic Multicellularity
Pattern formation is critical for coordinated cellular behavior. This is achieved through cell-cell communication and intracellular signal processing. Pattern formation behavior was synthetically programmed into E. coli by the creation of two cell types, "senders" and "recievers."[5].
The sender cells produce the quorum sensing molecule, AHL, through expression of gene LuxI. The orientation of the sender cells produces a gradient of AHL around them; more concentrated AHL the more proximal to the sender cells. The concentration of AHL determines the transcriptional activation of C1 and LacI mediated by the LuxR transcriptional activator. Cells receiving the most AHL produce the highest levels of both C1 and LacI (Lux Mediated). The reporter for the system, GFP, is under control of the Lac promoter (which is inhibited by LacI). Therefore, receiver cells that have high concentrations of AHL produce large volumes of LacI and shut off GFP expression. If cells receive NO AHL then GFP production is shut off by the non-LuxR mediated LacI. However, when a cell is in a "sweet spot" receiving medium levels of AHL, then the LuxR-LacI is expressed poorly such that it cannot inhibit GFP expression, and the C1 repressor is produced enough to shut off the non-LuxI mediated LacI; turning ON GFP.
By varying the response of LuxR to AHL and the plasmid copy number, different responses to AHL concentrations are observed. This keeps the same banding pattern, but changes the response localization along the AHL gradient. This effect can be seen by using two cell types, with different responses and reporter gene. The result is a bullseye pattern, as the differing AHL response created different "sweet spots" between the two cell types. Interestingly, a dynamic "sweet spot" was observed when an unstable variant of LacI is used in place of the wild-type LacI. The response is due entirely the the spatial orientation of the sender cells. This was demonstrated by placing sender cells in various orientations and sizes. The placement of the senders on the plate created differing patterns. The fact that these programmed cells could create many complex patterns though a limited set of genetic circuitry is fascinating and gives insights on the origins and evolution of multicellular organisms.
Synthetic Pattern Formation via Digital Computing
In Tamsir et al.[6] electronic digital inspired the creation of its biological counterpart.Each cell will perform simple genetic algorithms but when placed in a cell-to-cell format more complex functions can arise. E. coli has been engineered to harbor synthetic Boolean logic including AND, OR and NOT functions. What is unique about this circuit is the simple circuits are compartmentalized from the logic program as a whole and communicate through quorum sensing molecules. This allows for robustness by allowing colonies of cells to give a population averaged response. Also, the same genetic parts can be reused orthogonally. An OR gate was created simply by placing two promoters in tandem to each other, which respond to exogenous small molecules. The activation of either promoter will turn on the reporter gene that is directly downstream of the promoters.
A simple NOR gate was created by placing two input promoters in tandem upstream of a repressor protein. The repressor will inhibit the reporter gene expression. Such that when either of the two inputs is in the ON state, the reporter gene is turned off.
These logic functions can be put together in a more complicated array to compute higher order operations. The exemplary complex circuit herein was the XOR gate function. This function will have an output if either of the two signals is present, but not both signals simultaneously. This works by situating three NOR gates, to an output cell. It is easy to see why the signal is off when both stimuli are present (the Ara and aTc), because they are both linked to the NOR gates (in cells 2 and 3) that interact with the reporter cell (#4) through the RhII quorum producer. It is also simple to see why a single input will turn the reporter on. For instance, if Ara is present then cell 2's RhII will be OFF but cell 3 will be ON. The trick in this instance is the presence of Cell 1. Cell 1 will produce LasI, which will turn the NOR gates OFF in cell's 2 and 3, unless it is turned OFF by either the Ara or aTc.
- Levskaya A, Chevalier AA, Tabor JJ, Simpson ZB, Lavery LA, Levy M, Davidson EA, Scouras A, Ellington AD, Marcotte EM, and Voigt CA. Synthetic biology: engineering Escherichia coli to see light. Nature. 2005 Nov 24;438(7067):441-2. DOI:10.1038/nature04405 |
- Tabor JJ, Salis HM, Simpson ZB, Chevalier AA, Levskaya A, Marcotte EM, Voigt CA, and Ellington AD. A synthetic genetic edge detection program. Cell. 2009 Jun 26;137(7):1272-81. DOI:10.1016/j.cell.2009.04.048 |
- Tabor JJ, Levskaya A, and Voigt CA. Multichromatic control of gene expression in Escherichia coli. J Mol Biol. 2011 Jan 14;405(2):315-24. DOI:10.1016/j.jmb.2010.10.038 |
- Basu S, Gerchman Y, Collins CH, Arnold FH, and Weiss R. A synthetic multicellular system for programmed pattern formation. Nature. 2005 Apr 28;434(7037):1130-4. DOI:10.1038/nature03461 |
- Tamsir A, Tabor JJ, and Voigt CA. Robust multicellular computing using genetically encoded NOR gates and chemical 'wires'. Nature. 2011 Jan 13;469(7329):212-5. DOI:10.1038/nature09565 |
- Shimizu-Sato S, Huq E, Tepperman JM, and Quail PH. A light-switchable gene promoter system. Nat Biotechnol. 2002 Oct;20(10):1041-4. DOI:10.1038/nbt734 |
- Milias-Argeitis A, Summers S, Stewart-Ornstein J, Zuleta I, Pincus D, El-Samad H, Khammash M, and Lygeros J. In silico feedback for in vivo regulation of a gene expression circuit. Nat Biotechnol. 2011 Nov 6;29(12):1114-6. DOI:10.1038/nbt.2018 |


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I'm 15 years old and during the summer I've been working out with some dumbbells, and I've only been working out my arms for right now. Lately I have been feeling pain in my lower back and neck (which I do have a reversed curvature), but I would like to know if this pain is a side effects from just working my arms. Do I need to start working out other body parts?
my young friend, at 15 years old this will not really make a substantial difference at the moment. Your still developing and I am sure (hope!) that you are especially active. Play around with different movements but focus more on sports instead of lifting for right now in all honestly. Jun 22, 2012 at 23:44
Is it reversed curvature of the C-spine? Sounds like you might have some kyphosis/forward head postural thing going on that's causing the issues.– mikeJun 26, 2012 at 18:26
2 Answers
When a person works on one group of muscles more than another, this person develops what's known as muscle imbalance. The human body has many muscles working together in order to carry out daily physical activities. For instance walking up a flight of stairs is more than just your legs doing the work, but also your core gets engaged to to keep you balanced. By you only working on your arms you are neglecting the other muscles that would usually work together with your arms, and as a result causing a muscle imbalance. What ends up happening is that the muscles that you are working out start to pick up the slack for the muscles that are being neglected and as a result they start to work too hard, and this eventually leads to injury.
Now I can't say for sure if your neck and lower back pain is a result of this (I have a strong feeling that it is, but I am not totally sure), but what I can say for sure is that you absolutely should start working on more muscles so that you prevent future injuries that can be a result of muscle imbalance.
It's not terribly convenient doing squats with dumbbells, deadlifts I find are a bit better (but I've also got long arms, so I'm well suited to them). If you're going to focus only on your upper body, given your age I'd suggest calisthenics - since you're still growing you have progressive overload with your bodyweight built in.
Also, it's quite impossible to really diagnose a problem like that over the internet (to say nothing of the fact that most of us aren't physicians), but for general purposes it would be more useful to know exactly what workout routines you're doing. Some upper body workouts could actually be quite balanced given that they're only focusing on the upper body, while others could be terribly imbalanced and could likely cause you pain even if you didn't have any pre-existing condition.


text:
Bumbleberry Pie
Use our BakeBot Ai Chat for instant answers.
Why I Love This Recipe
This bumbleberry pie was absolutely, positively, 110% a success! The various thickening agents provided a perfectly set but not gelatinous filling and the pie crust recipe was flaky and buttery, yet sturdy enough to handle this pie. Best of all, the combination of berries and fruit was just perfect. The flavors really melded together to create a sweet and tart mixture that tasted natural and summery.
Ingredients You'll Need
For the pie crust:
2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 tsp. Kosher salt
1 tsp. granulated sugar (I like to use vanilla sugar)
1 c. (2 sticks) chilled, unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 TBSP chilled vodka
1/4 to 1/2 c. ice water, less 1 TBSP
For the pie filling:
1 c. blueberries
1 c. raspberries
1 c. strawberries, hulled and cut into one-inch pieces
1 c. Macintosh of Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and cut into one-inch pieces
1 c. rhubarb, trimmed and cut into one-inch pieces (about two stalks)
1 TBSP lemon juice
1 c. granulated sugar (I used half vanilla sugar and half regular)
1/3 c. all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 TBSP tapioca
1 egg
1 TBSP water
1 TBSP turbinado sugar
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. Remove pate brisee from the refrigerator and allow to warm very slightly.
2. In a large bowl, gently mix all fruits with the lemon juice.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, and tapioca. Sprinkle over berries and stir very gently to coat.
4. On a floured work surface, roll out one disk of pate brisee. Lay in the bottom of a deep pie dish and smooth into the edges. Leave the overhang. Roll out the second disk. If using mini cutters to create a design, do so now. Leave to the side.
5. Fill pie dish with fruit mixture. Lay the top crust on top of the mixture. Using a paring knife, trim extra crust, leaving a half-inch overhang. Crimp edges by folding top crust under the bottom crust. Seal by pressing gently with a fork or your fingers. If not using mini cutters, use the paring knife to cut slits in the top.
6. Whisk together the egg and water to create an egg wash. Brush over the top of the pie. Bake pie for 40 minutes. Remove and sprinkle on turbinado sugar, if desired. Bake for 15-20 minutes more. Remove and allow to cool at least three hours on a wire rack before serving.


text:
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text:
For the first time, a team of Kent State University students will compete as finalists in the Public Relations Student Society of America's annual Bateman case study competition.
The Bateman competition requires students to create, implement and evaluate a public relations plan for a real client. For the 2013 competition, students were given the task of creating an anti-bullying campaign and implementing it in a local school.
Out of 68 teams from across the country that submitted entries, PRSSA judges chose Kent State's "Blue" team as one of three national finalists. Kent State Blue will present its campaign via Skype May 10 to a second panel of judges, who will then determine the final three placements.
KSU Blue team members are:
Kirsten Bowers, a senior public relations major from Findlay
Wezley Garlick, a senior public relations major from Middletown, Del.
Mary Katherine Garvey, a senior public relations major from Blacklick, Ohio
Caitlin Potts, a senior public relations major from Boardman
Lyndsey Sager, a senior public relations major from Munroe Falls
"We really didn't have a set goal in our minds that we'd make it to nationals," Potts said. "We just wanted to do well and make a difference along the way."
Erin Orsini, a 2011 KSU public relations graduate and associate at True Digital Communications in Cleveland, served as professional advisor for KSU Blue. Tim Roberts, a lecturer and interim graduate coordinator for the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, served as faculty advisor for the team.
"The Bateman competition's rules restrict the role of advisors, so being named
a finalist is a testament to the creativity and hard work put forth by these
five students," Roberts said.
"They developed and implemented an outstanding campaign that got results and, obviously, impressed the PRSSA judges."
Teams were given three months to research the topic, create a plan, implement the plan, evaluate the plan, and create a casebook. KSU Blue implemented its plan at Rootstown Middle School.
"The PRSSA Bateman Case Study Competition is extremely demanding and requires the utmost amount of commitment, so it is truly rewarding to see Kent State Blue's hard work pay off," Orsini said. "The entire team has put countless hours into this campaign and has learned how to provide effective solutions for the challenge at hand for which they deserve this great honor."
The team chose to emphasize the role of a bystander in a bullying situation and provided students with several techniques they could utilize if they witnessed a bullying situation.
To help students understand the role of a bystander, the team created stickers listing proactive bystander techniques and passed them out to students. The team also held an art contest for students to participate in where students were required to draw a bullying situation with a bystander intervening.
Group members said they thought their focus on the bystander role might have been what set them apart from other groups. The team's research revealed that bystanders can effectively diffuse bullying situations.
Another aspect the Blue Team members thought helped elevate the cohesiveness of their plan was the closeness of the group.
"The key to our team was how well we were able to work together as a group," Sager said. "Before Bateman, I didn't know any of the other students on my team, but it didn't take long for us all to become good friends."
The Kent State Blue Team members said they hadn't expected to place in the finals, so the news came as quite a shock.
"I was sitting in the Franklin Hall lobby when I first heard the news, and I was so shocked," Potts said. "I literally could not stop shaking with excitement."
Orsini said national finalist status is not just an honor for the team.
"Being named a Bateman competition finalist is not only a great achievement for each member of Kent State Blue but also for the entire PR Kent family," Orsini said.


text:
A year ago, I traveled to California with colleagues Brian Richards and Rick Engdahl to interview some of the world's sharpest economic thinkers, including PIMCO CEO Mohamed El-Erian and former Mitt Romney adviser John Taylor of Stanford University.
We stopped in Sacramento for what I can sheepishly admit was originally a plan to kill time, interviewing a man we knew little about: Joseph Dear, the chief investment officer of CalPERS, the nation's largest pension fund. We didn't think we'd get much good material out of Dear; we'd had poor success interviewing public officials in the past, as they offer dry, scripted answers. But Dear surprised us. He shocked us, actually. He was as funny as he was wise, as humble as he was brilliant. He ended up being our favorite interview of the trip.
Dear was diagnosed with prostate cancer soon after our interview. He passed away yesterday, CalPERS confirmed.
Here are a few highlights I pulled from the transcript of our interview with Dear.
On politics affecting the economy: I think it's important to realize that in democracies, decisions when the pie is growing and when the question is how to distribute an ever-expanding base of wealth are way easier when the pie is shrinking and the decision is to withdraw benefits or to increase costs or to do both. It's really tough for the system to be able to do that. So there's some patience required because it is tough. These decisions, however, if avoided, will result in the consequence of a market riot, which nobody wants to see.
I'd say what you're looking for first of all is an ability of the political system to produce a compromise. And by its nature, a compromise leaves everybody somewhat dissatisfied. You didn't get everything you wanted; you had to give up stuff that was really precious to you.
On the other side of every one of these is somebody who's going to have something to gain and somebody's going to have something to lose. Those people are way more vocal than the general public who wants a stable political system and an economy which is growing as fast as it can reasonably grow, because growth is the best solution to all these problems.
On pessimistic groupthink: Well, I think there's growing optimism. I'm not on the leading edge of this, but I still think the mindset is having been bruised so badly with losses and terrorized by fear of a real meltdown in the global economy, that pessimism reigns.
There's a great quote by the economist A. C. Pigou that said the dying era of optimism gives birth to a new era: an era of pessimism, which is born not a baby, but a giant. And we are still working through that pessimism phase.
On risk and liquidity: Volatility is a form of risk, but it is by no means necessarily the most important. One of the things we learned in the financial crisis is liquidity is important and if you run short of cash in a period of distress, you end up with a set of options which are all terrible. And without going into all the detail, CalPERS found itself in a liquidity squeeze in the fall of '08, and to get ourselves out of it, we had to sell assets. Well, if you're in the midst of a panic and you're selling assets, what can you sell? You can only sell your best stuff. And when you sell into a panic like that, you're marking your portfolio with real losses. That was an extremely painful lesson for us, and obviously we've taken that to heart in a number of ways.
Asked if Calpers can realistically earn a 7.5% return on its assets when recent performance has been below that: I do, I do. Now, we point to the past and say it's over 8% for that time period and then the skeptics go, well, but you had this huge secular decline in interest rates, combined with in general over that long time period, pretty good equity performance. It's not been so great for the past 10 years, but even there, if you look at big cycles in investment and see 10-year returns from equities relatively low, what we've seen after that is a return to better returns after that or a reversion to the mean, so I think there is a reasonable basis to be confident.
Making the argument that pension liabilities are overstated: We determine our liabilities by applying a discount rate which is typically equal to or very close to our assumed rate of return. Now, there are critics who say that that's unreasonably high, that we should discount against a governmental borrowing rate or against some other lower rate. And when you reduce the discount rate on your liabilities, you greatly increase the size of those liabilities, so some people think that the liabilities of public pension plans are really understated, because in the United States, most funds use the rate of return as the discount rate. ... In a super-low rate environment like we have today, liabilities are definitely bigger. Are interest rates going to stay? Is the 10-year Treasury going to stay at 1.6% indefinitely? I doubt it. So it's going to go up, and the interest rates will go up, and even those who want to do the yield curve will see liabilities coming down.


text:
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text:
It has been my agenda for nearly 20 years to reform an industry that is for the most part built upon a shifting and unreliable foundation that has always been broken and is heading for total annihilation. If you have attempted to build a business in MLM Network Marketing) you will relate to what I am addressing.
For over a decade this vision has grown in urgency and definition to help direct a broken industry towards developing a customer based centered direct sales model. All of this was originally inspired by a maverick move towards customer acquisition by a company called Trivita. In 2001 I was introduced to this new direction in MLM by the simple statement, just buy your customers. I had already been engaged in the MLM industry for nearly 10 years at that time. My first exposure to MLM was in 1992 with the first to market a consumer (customer) based ISP, nationwide dialup Internet access for $20 per month.
I have been an entrepreneur my whole adult life and a good portion of my teen years as well, with my first business started at the age of 14. Prior to my exposure to MLM, I was and still am a traditional business entrepreneur. Therefore to say, I found the MLM model of exclusive distribution to and consumption by distributors and only motivated to this action by pursuing profit; "alien, illogical and disturbing".
Let me explain:
My introduction and very successful sojourn with Trivita helped me discover the stark contrast between the artificial economies of a distributor based sales company in contrast to a customer based sales company. I studied this comparison for many years and it became painfully clear, the reason traditional MLM fails, regardless of the compensation plan, regardless of the motivational speakers, regardless of the training to sell the "Hope and Dreams" as that is the only way to promote when the products and or services are frankly, always overpriced and usually underwhelmingly ineffective. There are very few exceptions. So the glaring difference I found in Trivita was the fact that for every distributor I recruited, I averaged 100 customers. Then the fact, I did not have to sell Hope and Dreams and instead, the pitch was just buy customers. The reaction from the potential distributor was always extremely positive and the close rate of a distributor was very high. When you factor in that every distributor usually meant 100 customers, the potential success was superior to anything else like it.
This was just a company that offered co-op acquisition of the leads and customers Trivita acquired via their infomercials and not much else. Even Trivita's products lacked true demonstrability and the pricing was not competitive. The only viable benefit regarding being customer centric was the fact you could just buy customers, that for the most part, only about 20% stayed a viable reorder over the years.
Because of this one aspect with Trivita, I have enjoyed a significant income for over 10 years with little attention, a true residual income. Over the years as a vendor to the MLM industry, occasionally getting involved with a few companies because I was promised they were going to offer customer centric solutions. None of them ever did and in my opinion, the super majority of MLMs are run by greedy sociopathic owners, that understand the game and that being the 3 month rule. They build their businesses to inspire, motivate and separate their new distributors from as much money and contacts they can. They know their business model only attracts distributors seeking some semblance of financial success therefore they lay their snares with grand claims of Hopes and Dreams. I consider it borderline criminal. Now we finally arrive to the meat of this article, that being what is a true Customer Centric direct sales company look like. Being that there really isn't any yet, we have to go to the imagination and vision that to some part is guided by good business principles and look at some of the true customer centric businesses on the scene today.
Amazon could easily be the epitome of customer centric.
Wow. "Earth's Most Customer-Centric Company."
That is big, it's bold, and it's risky for a brand to make the promise to fulfill on that 24/7 every week of the year.
Service recovery design pays off
Of course the shopping and purchasing experience on Amazon has been exceptional for years. But what if a customer has a post-purchase problem? A big part of customer experience design is a focus on "service recovery," or designing and refining the process when something goes wrong for the customer. Beloved brands like Zipcar know this is a critical opportunity for delivering moments of delight.
It is all about Customer Satisfaction.
Let me repeat that,
The latest results from the American Customer Satisfaction Index reveals Amazon.com as the reigning and undisputed champ in both Internet retailing and across the entire department in overall customer satisfaction. Amazon's CEO, Jeff Bezos perhaps more than any business leader has taken the philosophy of truly caring for the customer and ushered it into the digital era. Bezos has built a company from the ground up purely based off of the unbending, unyielding philosophy of serving the customer across all departments. With a 164 million Amazon customers, few would argue Bezos as the key architect of building an authentic, customer-centric company.
Pointers from the article 7 Customer Service Lessons from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos
1. Don't Just Listen to Your Customers, Understand Them
Everyone has to be able to work in a call center."
2. Serve the Needs of the Customer
"We're not competitor obsessed, we're customer obsessed. We start with what the customer needs and we work backwards."
3. The Empty Chair
The Most Important Person in the Room "Focusing on the customer makes a company more resilient."
4. Never Settle for 99%
"We're not satisfied until it's 100%."
5. Respect Today's Customer
"If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell six friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet,
they can each tell 6,000."
6. Strive to Create a Customer-Centric Company
"If we can arrange things in such a way that our interests are aligned "with our customers, then in the long term that will work out really
"well for customers and it will work out really well for Amazon."
7. Don't Be Afraid to Apologize
"We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission."
Over the past two decades, Amazon has held a steady pace of positive press due to their industry-altering company and great customer service. However back in 2009, the foundations of the online book mogul were shook when they remotely deleted copies of the books "1984" and "Animal Farm" from users' Kindles. The incident prompted an outcry of Internet users to see the dark, "Big Brother" side of Amazon – one that Bezos had worked hard to steer clear of. Amazon quickly made an apology with the usual dry and inhuman statement from the press team. But what really turned people back towards Amazon, was an informal and heartfelt apology from Jeff Bezos:
From "MLM" aka "Network Marketing",
to a sustainable Coop Customer based Marketing Platform!
Now the vision for a better kinder direct sale company
I have run MLM companies, built them, serviced them as a vendor and engaged with them as a distributor for more than 20 years. I have touched and serviced and influenced over 100 million associates over this period of time. The following is my agenda to change this industry to service the little guy and gal, offering a real solution to build a middle class sustainable income for everyone, not just the elite few, we know as "leaders" in their respective company.
1. A Viable and Competitive Product
First and foremost, the "company" must offer a viable product and or service that does what it says and better than any of their competitors and better yet, have a product or service that has no legitimate competition. I could go into great detail here about the MLM industry and their underwhelming and over priced products with many making spurious claims to eventually be shut down by the FDA, etc.
2. The Virtual Warehouse
This may be putting cart before the horse. Inspired by Amazon's virtual warehousing for their merchants selling in Amazon, it is time the MLM industry moves forward with a similar solution. Storing and paying additional shipping, your monthly product commitment in your spare bedroom, garages or den has been the standard fro decades. With today's technology and database management abilities, there is no excuse to not move toward a virtual solution for distributors. This can be done in house by the company, or, use Amazon's virtual warehousing that is available on a global scale.
This one upgrade to this industry will make reselling, shipping and distribution automated and easy for every distributor, regardless of location or available storage abilities. Bottom line is a doubling or greater movement of product.
3. Customer and Lead co-op acquisition
This is where the company marketing people run ads, driving vertically targeted prospects to an 800 number or website, acquiring quality pre enrolled prospects or customers who have purchased or best have enrolled into auto ship. The distributor's contribution enhances the company's budget and the "partnership" enhances the customer's retention. The company also makes available to the distributor mailing lists to their "enrolled leads and customers" to assist in the continued purchases etc. It is a win win situation and is a proven technique as proven by Trivita.
4. Becoming an E Retailer (automated back office shipping)
Now that the distributors have their inventory, products and samples (if applicable), online, in an offsite virtual warehouse, the process to send product or samples becomes effective and easy. As simple as logging into the back office of their respective MLM company, entering the product (pulling from existing inventory and/or purchasing additional inventory), quantity, and drop ship address, with a simple click, the product or sample is easily on the way, while the distributor is still talking to their prospective client, prospect or distributor on the phone. This seamless process makes the potential growth of the company and distributor 100 times greater than the typical cumbersome processes today.
5. 800 telemarketing service platform
Today's technologies not only make this proposed service affordable, but extremely effective. Typically, new distributors are assigned an ID# number. The number resides within the servers database to track sales, commissions, etc. of the distributor. Thus the hardest part is already done for an 800 sales number. [A little explanation of current tech] 800 number technology software interfaces display the originating number, or forwarded number. IE: If the distributor develops a radio commercial with a phone number (toll free or not) then forwards that number to the company 800 number, all he or she needs to do is register that number (via the back office) or calling it in. This way the telemarking operators receiving the incoming calls, or the technology, know who originated the call and the orders are taken and assigned appropriately to the distributor.
It can be as simple as the distributor takes a call from an ad, the prospects decides to buy the product. The distributor can easily 3 way into the 800 platform and assist the sale. It can be as easy as an ad running offering a product with the company main toll free number offering free shipping and handling with the special pin number. It can be very easy to build.
Imagine the projected results with the distributors taking the initiative, no more need for mentors, no more need for narcissistic leadership, no more need for motivational events, because the motivation is found in the system and the results. Imagine!
6. API (Application Programming Interface).
Distributor selling on Amazon, Ebay, Alibaba, etc.
Basically, the MLM company has an API developed that interfaces with Amazon, Ebay, etc for the distributor. This allows the distributor to develop an online store on Ebay, Amazon, Alibaba, etc, drive and support the prospects and customers, but the sale interfaces through the company. Thereby the company controls the pricing, collects the money (connected to the distributor) and ships the product. All the collecting, shipping, tracking and commissions paid out is done by the company.
API: In computer programming, an application programming interface (API) is a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. An API expresses a software component in terms of its operations, inputs, outputs, and underlying types.
Basically allows the company to remotely control pricing,
merchant collection, shipping and communication via the
distributors Ebay, Amazon, etc. account
More about Amazon API:
More about Ebay API:
7. Retail Sales Only Sites (Widgets and actuals)
Traditional MLM companies give a distributor a self-replicated web site that is upfront and focused on selling the Hopes and Dreams of the opportunity, the money, the comp plan, the hype and flash of it all, designed to recruit more distributors. This is death to a retail customer. Very few MLM companies even consider a dedicated self-replicated retail sales only site for their various products. I have yet to even hear of any companies making a simple widget that allows the distributor to have the retail site hosted via the widget on their own domains, much less the ability to add any customization to it. Below is one of the first and rare MLM retail sites I am aware of. It sells the coffee, the coffee benefits offers one off sale and free shipping with autoship.
More about widgets here:
8. Social Marketing Aps and systems
Marketers, merchants, etc. need a portfolio of tools, to get the message out, to build awareness, to build a sphere of influence and to build a customer and distributor centered loyalty program. Very few people, even entrepreneurs have all the skill sets to achieve this. However, automated marketing, email auto responders, social broadcasters, coop advertising, blogging platforms, materials and videos are necessary tools for the entrepreneur. When you do not supply these types of tools in a controlled environment, the message being broadcasted may not meet the criteria of the company nor abide by regulations.
There are solutions and Markethive is one of the best options. Markethive supplies all of these tools and more, integrated and easily configured and controlled within the communities vertical structures built for DSA companies like yours. It is called the company Directories and within a company portal in Markethive, your distributors will find all they need; Broadcasting platforms, self-replicating personalized PDF documents, Coop advertising systems, blogging platforms, email auto responders, everything needed for marketing, in one place.
9. Training and videos
I do not mean motivational speakers and cheer leading. I mean, real world training how to build the businesses. Daily classes offered by competent experienced teachers, so the distributors develop a strong understanding, expanding their customer territory and acquisition and operate like a real business.
With the accelerated market place awash in innovation and technology, technology that puts the human element right into the center of the equation, you can understand why you see the MLM industry sluggish and many companies dying on the vine and others falling flat on their faces with their much heralded launches. Entrepreneurs (distributors) that once upon a time, a flashy video, a charming pitch man, and a compelling comp plan, worked to explode the next greatest MLM launch.
Not today.
It is only a matter of time a young bold, innovative entrepreneur launches the first true customer centric MLM similar to the framework I have discussed here. And when they do, the world will quake, the swamps will empty and the first multi trillion MLM enterprise will rise to srtand head to toe with the great innovations today like Facebook Google, PayPal etc.
Written by:
Thomas Prendergast
CMO: Markethive
Original article here:


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Early Bird Archaeopteryx Grew More Like A Dinosaur
Modern birds grow amazingly fast. After hatching, many species grow to adult size in a matter of days to weeks. But a new study published in the journal PLoS One suggests that birds did not always exhibit the same rapid rate of growth. By looking at chips of bone taken from the legs of some of the earliest birds and their close dinosaur relatives, paleontologist Gregory Erickson and colleagues found that when it came to growing up, early birds like Archaeopteryx were a lot more like dinosaurs than their living relatives.
In order to study how Archaeopteryx and other early birds (such as Jeholornis and Sapeornis) grew, paleontologists had to move beyond gross anatomy and look at the microscopic structure of the fossilized bone sampled from the legs of the selected specimens. Different growth rates are represented by the presence of patterning of different kinds of bone, and what the scientists expected to find was rings of bone filled with holes for blood vessels that represent rapid growth. Instead they found bone tissue that was not well-supplied by blood vessels and was more similar to that of slow-growing animals, like living reptiles.
This presented something of a paradox. Larger dinosaurs that were closely related to birds, but not actually birds, had bone tissue indicative of rapid growth—yet the earliest birds did not. Why should this be? The scientists proposed that it may be a matter of size.
The larger the animal that was studied, the more their bones seemed to indicate fast growth. The small dinosaur Mahakala, by contrast, exhibited bone types more similar to that seen in the early birds. This suggested that growth patterns were tied to size and that the earliest birds had inherited their relatively slow growth rate from their small dinosaur ancestors. Indeed, while presently recognized as the earliest bird, Archaeopteryx had far more in common with its dinosaur forebears than modern birds, leading the authors of the paper to conclude, "Archaeopteryx was simply a feathered and presumably volant dinosaur."


text:
"Summarizing What God Calls Us To Do = Depending On The Cross"
"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47)
A healthy church can be just 50 members or over 50, 000+ members. The healthy church can be a very small group of people who are struggling to keep it afloat. Or they can be exploding with new people. They can be in a dwindling town, such as in a Midwest coal town, or in the heart of the big city. They can have many elements staked against their favor such as being in a town with to many churches, or in a liberally harsh environment such as in a new mission field or in the heart of San Francisco. They could have just withered a moral breach from a key leader or suffered a tragic loss. The healthy church can even see their membership slipping away. And of course the healthy church can be exploding with hundreds and even thousands of people, such as those in Korea. So what is a healthy church?
Our contemporary society today sees a successful church as one with a large campus and big facilities. A church that has lots of programs that dwarf the other churches in its city. If you think this is a sign of a successful church, then you are among most leaders and Christians in America today. Just as I once believed and taught as a church growth consultant. However, this is not what Scripture tells us what a healthy church is. In fact a healthy church can be just a few families, they may never see growth and may actually be in decline. And a diseased church can have that large and nice campus, they can have several thousand people with programs we all would envy. Because the health of the church is not in the numbers or in the building or in the programs, it is who they are in the Lord, and what they are doing with His call.
A healthy church is one who is poured out to our Lord. Who practices the love of our Lord through worship, teaching, learning, loving, caring, praying, and outreach. A church that chooses to be a bag of marbles, all with different colors and sizes all working together. Each marble seizing its call and exercising its gift for the game. Have you ever tried to play marbles with just one? Not very fun is it? To play your best you need more than one, each with a purpose and direction. In spite of that a lot of churches chose to be the lone marble. That church really cannot be used to play any marble games, because not that there are too few, the marbles just do not get along. Yet the more marbles you have working together the better you can play. And the more is two or more gathered in His name. A people working together for a common purpose with vision and strength, all striving to give God the glory.
We must not care how big we are, but how we are. We cannot have the gathering of more people as our only goal and purpose. Because this is not what God has called us to. Yes Matthew 28 calls us as a mandate to make disciples and to teach. But if we interpret it as only bringing people into the church, then we are short sited. Yes we need to invite people, but it is what we do with the people that God has given us that is the primary role and purpose of the church. We have to be a better 'how', if we truly want to receive the Lord's blessing and be all that we are called to be.
Place this stethoscope from Scripture to your churches heart:
The first church was, "devoted to the apostles' teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, prayer; and everyone was filled with awe."
What is the stethoscope hearing from your church? What is your church devoted too? What and where is your awe, your wonderment? This will be the question if answered honestly, be the measuring rod to the health of your church. Because this passage in Acts gives us the purpose, vision and call of the church. Not just a certain church down the street, but your church, and all churches, as we all are one body together. The healthy church looks like Acts 2! The healthy church can be your church, perhaps it already is, or it may need reformed. So catch that 'AWE', that passion and devotion to our Lord and the reason for our being!
Restating the Simple Problem
The problem is not so much how we do things, it's how we are! The problem is not what we do in our worship services; it is how we treat the people that go to our services. The problem is not how we are dressing for services but how we love and care at our services. The problem is not how good our programs and location are, it is how we are. The problem is not so much who we are; the problem is how we are. Too often we confuse the WHO with the HOW! The problem is not so much as being a Christian in of itself; but, the problem is how we treat others as Christians.
So we need to change the HOW, to change how we are, how we behave, how we treat each other, how we love, and how we care. How we pray. How we do the 'practice' of the church, the love of our Lord through worship, teaching, learning, loving, praying, and outreach. So that the big 'how' is that we model Christ as a chosen reality, that Jesus Christ really is in our lives!
The church is a human institution, filled with our fallen nature. So we should expect a few flaws of unsatisfactory reactions by people. After all, you cannot please everyone. And there is no institution better; after all, who is going to marry you and bury you? Who is going to hold your baby up in baptism or dedication? These important stages of life are centered upon the church, all the richness of the traditions, and all the hope we have to look to. Would you rather go to the courthouse? Well, if we do not reform and turn our failing churches around, people will rather go to the courthouse! And then where does that leave the church and its relevance in culture?
Embracing the Opportunity, and be the Church that Christ Called
"Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it." (James 4:8-11)
Most churches that are failing did not wake up one day and just decide 'hey lets fail'. They did not have started off with me first intentions and ignore our Lord's call. They probably did not chose a purposeful direction to be critical and condescending to each other and especially non-Christians. They did not write their mission statements with a 'how to' do the disdainful disposition, or hold seminars on modeling attitudes of puffed up pride!' There was a process that led up to the point of decline and apathy from a starting point of new birth and excitement. There was a point where the first love became clouded, and other dispositions took over the role of the church. As the divorcing couple did not go into their wedding with the vision and plan for the divorce. They did not say in their vows, "say in 5 years lets become so miserable, we will divorce and live frustrated and disillusioned lives." Here too was a process that went from love and excitement of there newly weed bliss, to bitterness, criticalness, condescendment, defensiveness and withdraw, and then the decision to end their relationship. It has been my observations that the causes of marriage failure are the same as with church failure. Because relationships have the same perimeters for what works and what destroys. And the church is a community of relationships, with each other, to the world and most importantly with our Lord.
The process first begins with the love and excitement for the ministry and the new birth for the new Christian or the new church start for the seasoned Christian. It can just being in a healthy church, or being in a non-healthy church and never have experienced anything else. But at some point the committed Christian who has received the election of our Lord, has traded that first love in for a lemon of sin. Some how that love and passion slowly dwindles away, as other things creep there way in the place of that excitement. And these 'things' are the diseases of apathy, gossip, pride, legalism, slander and the list can go on and on. These form the relationship killers of bitterness, criticalness, condescendment, defensiveness and withdraw. These are the sins that take away from each other, it is in fact stealing from God Himself. These were not the precepts that the church was founded upon, these diseases were not in the vision of her planters, just as the divorce court was not on the wedding planner with the couple getting married. Yet, it happened, and it keeps happening.
We may have started to "come near to God", and we received "he will come near to you," but we decided to engaged in the process that let go of what we had. We have let the "double-minded" mindset take over the plan and purpose that God has given us. We must recapture the call of that first love will all of the excitement and vigor for our Lord. We must humble our pride before it is too late.
One of the central themes of humbleness is if we do not do it, God will. God asks us to 'humble ourselves' for the essential reason that if we do not, He will and when that happens it may just be too late! If we do not start to reform our churches to be as they were designed and destined to, then it will too be too late. The doors will close. Just as it has already happened in most parts of Europe. The church once fluoresced there, but apathy and disease took over and now her pews sit empty in the mist of a confused and decadent culture. We cannot just visualize what a healthy church can and should look like, we must act on it to make it happen.
We have spent a lot of time on all the negative aspects of the Church, and the problems associated with the miss treatment from Christians. We have seen how we rationalize our behaviors to make us feel good, so we do not have to listen to the call of our Lord. And how we miss interpret the truths of Scripture for our own gain, ignoring the true mission of the Church.
We have also seen some aspects of good character that we can do personally and collectively as a Church to be the Church that Christ calls us to be. We have seen and read the Scriptures, seen the results of what happens when we do and do not follow our Lord, when we do not humble ourselves. So the choice is up to us, we are given choices in life, options to follow. We can see for ourselves the church that is worshipping the Lord, caring and loving each other, steeped in prayer, and reaching its neighborhood and world for Christ. And we can see the church that is full of strife and conflict. The church that has given up its call to be in Christ and substituted it with their own inclinations and agenda. The results of not following Christ are causing people to leave the church bitter and disillusioned. Because to many Christians have transferred their election of grace into advertisements of hostility, thus they forgot the main thing. So the disillusioned world has confused the strife of Christians for the care of the Lord, thus see an uncaring God by seeing His uncaring people and leaders.
I was at a youth pastors conference a few years ago and heard a story that relay caused me to shutter and think. A story of a teen who tried to join a youth group, who was small and awkward, and seemingly unlovable. None of the other youth would have anything to do with him. The youth pastor invited him to a fun youth trip to an amusement park, a supposed fun and community building event. The other kids shunned him, the youth pastor himself did not recall if he spent any time with the new kid. Instead spent all of his time with the popular kids. No one would pair up with this new kid, or reach out to him, because they conceded him undesirable and loveless, so he roamed an amusement park all by himself. A skinny loaner who no one wanted to befriend, his name was Brian Warner.
A shy reclusive timed youth that no one wanted to show and model the love and care of Christ. They were to busy in their cliques, to busy pretending to be a Christian and, singing the songs and discussing the spiritual things but not implementing them, because it was inconvenient: It got in the way of their own agenda. So Brian left disillusioned. This was perhaps his one last hope for receiving care and love. There was no Christ like outreach from the people who are called to be the best at it. Since love and care was not presented, Brian received not.
So he grew up and changed his name. He took the first name of a famous actress who committed suicide, and a serial killer for a last name. His name became Marilyn Mansion. He is the favorite of the two teens who killed all those youth in Columbine, and the various other school shootings. Who so many youth listen too and find life totally hopeless and un-meaningful or kill themselves!
What if the youth group did reach out to Brian. Would he be a great Christian singer attracting the youth that feel hopeless, attracting the two teens in Columbine to live for Christ, instead of killing for Satan. We may not know until the Day of Judgment of what could have happened, but we do know what did happen, and we do know what we should have done as Christians. Because we know what Christ calls us too. We just all too often chose not too. How different our world would be if just one person in a youth group in Florida reached out to an seemingly awkward and unlovable kid….!? How different and better would our world be if you and your church did as we are called to do? Be truly loving and caring, presenting those Christ like characteristics?
Just how different our world would be if our churches as a collective were doing as we are called, if we just would get off the pews, and get in Christ!
© 1998, 2001, Richard J. Krejcir, Ph.D. Schaeffer Institute of Church Leadership, http://www.churchleadership.org/


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